One of the largest stumbling blocks I faced in acclimatising here has been the innocuous you. The you can say you to me one. Without wishing to dishearten the newbies, I have to confess that after 20 years here situations still occur where my mind shifts into panic-mode when this dilemma crops up. With the speed of lightning I tick off all the items on my mental list of criteria for the mode of address and scan all the precedents desperate to get it right. Last week I flunked again, flailing...

roxane

here in Zurich you can go to a latin party everyday of the week.

There are many venues and after you have visited them you'll surely find one that suits your style and what you are searching for.

Basically here you will find.

* Latin places, frequented by latin people.
* Cuban Style dance places frequented by latins and europeans.
* Puertorican/NY style places frequented mostly by europeans.

The reason is simply that the Puertorican/NY style teached here is a mix of latin dances with ballroom and hustle and swing dances in NY, it is very stylized and far from our latin roots, so the latins don't like it that much.

[B]Places where you can go dancing,[/B][LIST][*]On Mondays and Fridays you have party at the school Salsa Rica at the Maagareal, this is a big PR/NY style school, with a big dance floor, stylized and "non-latin". ( [URL]http://www.salsarica.ch/[/URL] ) 10.- Mo / 15.- Fr.[*]On Wednesdays you have the party at the "Sugar Lounge" ( [URL="http://www.sugarlounge.ch/"]www.sugarlounge.ch[/URL] ), this is a great party Cuban Style, superb ambiance, but small and you can't dance there without bumping and stepping on the others, they have lessons from 8-10pm. from 10pm on party is on and it is full. free entrance[*]On Saturdays you have the Havana Noche party, pure Cuban at the "Bohemia" ([URL]http://www.bohemia.ch/[/URL] ), excellent music and ambiance but also even smaller than the Sugar Lounge . free entrance[*]On saturdays you have also a party at the new local of a school called "Salsa Power", they say they are the biggest school in Switzerland ( [URL="http://www.salsapower.ch/"]www.salsapower.ch[/URL] ) also very PR/NY stylized non-latin Salsa school.[*]On Tuesdays at "Le Bal", at the BeethovenStr [URL="http://www.lebal.ch/"]www.lebal.ch[/URL] ( this is mostly a PR/NY place ) 5.-[*]On Tuesdays during July 08, at the "Floss" at bellevue, free entry[*]On Thursdays at "X-tra" this is the best party of the week and full of people of all styles, you have also a second dance floor only for Merengue/Bachata. ( [URL="http://www.x-tra.ch/"]www.x-tra.ch[/URL] ) 15.-[*]Sundays at "Kaufleuten" this is also a great party, all styles together. ( [URL="http://www.kaufleuten.ch/"]www.kaufleuten.ch[/URL] ) 10.-[*]On weekends you have the Latin Palace and the fambar at the Militärstrasse, near the Kaserne. The fambar is a Cuban bar. The 3 cuban bartenders that worked at Bohemia, got together and opened this bar. It is also small but the ambiance is pure Cuban, Fr. Sat. Jut to the side is the Latin Palace, a mostly Dominican discotheq, some salsa, but mostly reggeton, merengue and bachata.[*]Many other latin bars around the Langstrasse region.[/LIST][B]Now... to learn without a teacher...[/B]

If you are a girl and come dressed sexy, there will be many boys keen to teach you some steps ;).

If you are a boy, then you have to learn before, because it is the man who leads and improvises the dance routine and then he creates the whole dancing experience.

If the girl is learning with and advanced male dancer it is then easy for her to learn to follow and for the man to teach her how to follow.

If the boy is learning with an advanced dancer woman, then it won't be easy nor fun. And most advanced ladies don't know the part the man does, so they can't really explain you.


But it also depends where you go.

x-tra and kaufleuten are the best places IMO, but people mostly go there to meet the other dancers and dance.

salsarica and salsapower is full of students from the schools and they go there to practice , so maybe this is a more "academic" place to learn. but they know each other from the school so you'd have to make a little effort to enter the cliques.

In Sugar Lounge on Wednesdays, they have free salsa dance courses.

it starts before the party 8:00 from to 10:00 so there you can maybe learn easily. whoever when the party starts it would be difficult to practice as it gets fully crowded from 11 to 1am.

Just a little last note.

There are mainly two approaches to the latin dances that I see here.

Our latin approach, that is, we go to dance to socialize and have a good time, to meet people, for the boys to get in contact with the girls ( and viceversa ) to have fun. Our dance style is more sensual an also more rythmic.

The less-latin approach, is that they go to dance, for a hobby or a kind of sports activity, their main focus is on practicing the steps and turns they learned at the school and their style of dance is more focused on the showy/flashy side of the dance.

And many shadows in between.... you'll go to the different scenes and find the one that matches your style and expectations best...

Hi Everyone,

That's my first blog entry on EF, hopefully not the last.

I have been struggling for nearly a year now, trying to find a job, it was the period after a financial crisis and everyone seemed to backup on hiring, after 10 months trying, changing techniques, enhancing languages, skills and gaining more personal experience, i managed to get not 1 job but 4 .

I just thought to share some of this experience looking for jobs around Switzerland...

Mowvich

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Lob